UNIC Canberra Director

Nelson Mandela Memorial at ANU, December 2013.

Mr. Christopher Woodthorpe is Director of the United Nations Information Centre (UNIC), Canberra. UNIC Canberra covers, Australia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. In this role Mr. Woodthorpe acts as the representative of the Secretary-General and coordinates the Organization’s communications outreach in the region.

Mr. Woodthorpe joined the United Nations in 1989 as Chief of the Sales and Marketing Section, Department of Public Information, where he was responsible for management of the UN’s publications sales offices in New York and Geneva, including editorial and sales offices, and the External Publications Office. During this period he also served as Chair of the Electronic Publishing Working Group and was the Focal Point for coordinating the Department’s relocation following renovation of the United Nations complex.

Mr Woodthorpe’s prior background was in marketing and publishing. He worked for VNU, the multinational Dutch publishing house in London, and transferred to the United States as Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Prior to joining the UN, Mr. Woodthorpe was Director of Marketing at McGraw-Hill, New York, and then Director of North American Operations of Medical China.

Mr. Woodthorpe was educated in the United Kingdom, where he attended Marlborough College and obtained a Master of Arts degree in Geography from Cambridge University.

Mr. Woodthorpe was born in 1958, is married and has three children. He has an active interest in a number of sports as well as local history.